A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO TERRORISM AND WARDr. Joseph Thomas
[A paper presented at the Seminar held in memory of Metropolitan Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios at St. Gregorios Orthodox Church, Oak Park, Illinois on November 24, 2001 by the Gregorian Study Circle, Chicago] The airplanes that went through the World Trade Center on September 11 have also pierced and torn up the lives of all of us. Needless to say that the crisis affected our fear-free lives as well as our economy. We feel much more insecure in America now than we had been a year ago. As ordinary immigrant citizens, what is the impact of the present crisis for our children and us? Many friends have expressed their sense of insecurity, fear, and gloom. Some of them literally cried saying, "How can I protect my children from a nuclear holocaust?" All of us felt some degree of melancholy, although we did not know any of the victims of the WTC and pentagon attacks personally. Most of our depressed feelings arose from that part of our psyche that was connected by the invisible thread of humanity to all other human beings; and their sufferings, especially, in our immediate environment. Life has changed for all Americans, immigrants, students, and visitors since September 11, 2001. Everyone is more aware of who the person is who lives in his neighborhood, who their fellow passenger is in the airplane, and has become suspicious of anyone who looks different from the Euro-American or the Afro-American. Many people have become more aware that they cannot take the lifestyle in America for granted. Our values have changed from that of finding security in a fat purse and the skyrocketing stock market, to deeper religious values and the preservation of basic life and existence. Ironically, the terrorists have made us more spiritual as though the terror came from Yahweh, and church attendance went up all over America for over two months following the attack. Many people in America ask, "Is there not a better solution to terrorism than bringing Afghanistan down to the stone-age, where by the way, it already was with the help of Soviet Union? Will that free us of the problem of terrorism? Is there a spiritual solution to this problem?"-- A solution that will not be the cause of a bigger problem in the future. As Christians do we have an answer? What caused this crisis in the first place? Where did it all start? As a child is reported to have asked, "Why do they hate us?" Is it an unequal distribution of world's wealth favoring America? Is it political? Is it jealousy? Is it a rebellion against an arrogant ego of America? Is it religious hatred? Or is it just plain old hatred of the "other"? We shall focus on the religious aspects of the conflict for the present discussion. From Osama bin Laden's point of view, the war is between Islam and Christianity. Or, he wants to make it look like that. The American "infidels" have desecrated Islam's Holy Land, with the American military camping out in Saudi Arabia. According to bin Laden the American army is occupying Saudi Arabia rather than protecting it. Secondly, Israelis with the active support of America (a "Christian" country), occupy Jerusalem (Islam's third holiest place), and usurp the Islamic Palestinians of their land and their livelihood. Third, the Christian culture of the West is destroying the Islamic culture and its values through the dominance of Uncle Sam with his military and media might. What we call modernization is unIslamic to bin Laden and the Taliban. Osama bin Laden thinks that true Moslems all over the world should call a Jihad (Holy War) against their arch villain America, and destroy that enemy of Islam. Most Moslems would say, "Islam would never support the killing of innocent people. Allah of the Holy Qur'an never advocated killings. This is all the work of a few misguided individuals at the fringes of society. The real Islam is sanctified from violence. Islam means peace. Islam means tolerance." We have to agree that many Moslems fall into this category; the truly spiritual people have much more in common regardless of what religion they adhere to. Most of the Moslems that we have come to know personally in Kerala and America are good, decent, people who easily would fit the philosophy the peaceful Moslems project. But there are extremists among Moslems, as there are extremists among Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs. Osama bin Laden and his Al Quaeda organization represent the extremist view of Islam. But professing that Islam teaches only love and tolerance is hard to sell, according to a group of secular, freethinking Moslems (Source: http://www.secularislam.org/call.htm). Where do the extremists find justification in the Qur'an for their inflammatory actions? The secular Islam organization says that what the extremists do is Jihad and that killing nonbelievers is mandatory for every Moslem. For this, according to their interpretation of the Qur'an, the Jihadis will go to Paradise. What are the things waiting for them in paradise? In paradise Allah will "wed us with Huris (celestial virgins) pure and beautiful ones" (56:54), and unite us with large-eyed beautiful ones while we recline on our thrones set in lines (56:20). There they are promised to eat and drink pleasantly for what they did (56:19). Allah also promises them "boys like hidden pearls" (56:24) and "youth never altering in age like scattered pearls" (76:19). The Qur'an tells the faithful, according to the Secular Islam organization, "not to make friendship with Jews and Christians" (5:51), "kill the disbelievers wherever we find them" (2:191), "murder them and treat them harshly" (9:123), "fight and slay the pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every strategem" (9:5). The Qur'an asks Moslems "to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies" (8:10), calls the nonbelievers najis (filthy, untouchable) (9:28), and order its followers to fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left (2:193). The nonbelievers will go to hell and drink boiling water (14:17). The Qur'an teaches that husbands have the right to scourge their wives if the wives are found disobedient (4:31). The Holy Book advises men to "take a green branch and beat your wife"(38:44). Women will go to hell if they are disobedient to their husbands (66:10). Men can marry up to four wives and are allowed to sleep with their slave maids and as many `captive' women as they have even if those women are already married (4:3). The passages quoted from the Qur'an by the secular Moslem group disturb us profoundly. But then, what do we read in our Old Testament Bible? No matter how we try to interpret it to make it look divine and spiritual, don't we find passages and themes that sound similar to the Qur'anic verses quoted above? What does the God of the Bible say about people who worship other gods? Didn't He ask his chosen people to destroy their enemies, including women and children? You know the answer, don't you? Just in case you are in doubt, read the book of Numbers chapter 31 and Deuteronomy chapter 20. Does the Bible treat men and women as equals? That is doubtful too. Is God a god of Wrath or is He a God of Love? Is God both good and evil or is He beyond good and evil? Is it the Law of Nature that destruction will have to precede creation and construction? There is a portrayal of a three-faced god in Hindu mythology, with one head in the center facing us, and another face attached to its left side, and a third one to its right side. Joseph Campbell says that the one in the center facing us is the Self. One face on its side is the destructive aspect of the Self, and the other, the Creative aspect. There is violence, destruction, and evil on the one hand, and positive, creative forces on the other. These two forces, good and evil and love and hate, are present in all of us and in the god we read about in the sacred books. There are good and bad people in the religious organizations of all Faiths. Religion may be good, but the same religion is interpreted differently by the individual depending on one's own proclivities. Suppose you put a ball of wax and a ball of clay in the sun. The wax will melt and the clay will harden. Yet it is the same sun that warmed up both. Perhaps, religion influences different people the same way as the sun affects the wax and the clay. The Kabbala teachers say that the stories of the Old Testament are only metaphors. The real meaning is hidden; it is coded. We have to decode it in order to understand its real meaning. The Zohar provides us with such a code. The modern interpretation of the Tora goes as far as to say that the books attributed to Moses are not necessarily accurate historical documents although there may be a kernel of historical truth in them. And yet many Christians of extreme conservative leanings take the Bible as God's own words, literally. That gives them permission to feel self-righteous and judgmental against others who do not belong to their brand of Christianity. The Rev. Falwell thought that the WTC inferno was God's way of punishing America for throwing out God from public institutions. He said, "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy forty million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternate lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way – all of them who have tried to secularize America – I point the finger in their face and say, `You helped this happen.' " Falwell was apologetic about this statement later but was wobbly about it in subsequent interviews. In another statement Falwell says even Osama bin Laden's soul could be saved if he converted to Christianity – but he would still deserve to be killed. (Reported in Chicago Tribune, November 26, 2001). We wonder how the Rev. Falwell is different from bin Laden in their judgment of America? Here, we may be trying to distance ourselves from "that kind of Christians." Nevertheless, we come under the category of Christians and as such we cannot escape from the judgment against the Christian community in general. Christian countries are guilty of slavery, bio-terrorism (giving Native Americans blankets infested with smallpox virus with the purpose of killing them), Crusades that could be a match for any Islamic war, political and economic colonialism and oppression, and to top it all, nuclear annihilation of a huge mass of innocent people – present and future. Certainly, we have found theological justification for all those evils we have perpetrated on the human race and on the ecology of the earth on which we live. The U.S. Catholic Bishops support limited use of military force. The Bishops conclude that "sound moral principles" require that military force be used only against terrorists and their supporters. The document says, "In the light of the church's teaching the use of arms must not produce disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated." Can we be violent and non-violent at the same time? Why did Jesus admonish Peter when that disciple chopped off the earlobe of the sergeant who came to arrest Jesus? But Jesus also whipped the moneychangers and the establishment of those rogues who made the house of God into a house of thieves. He did not waste time playing sitar to a bunch of jackals, and did not have a nice word to say about the religious totalitarians of his day. Could we not equate the Taliban with those Temple authorities? Pacifism may not be the answer to religious totalitarianism. In that case, is not a war on Taliban justifiable? Again, we have our theological protections to kill others. Someone might ask, "Is our intention as selfless and divine as that of Jesus?" No society is free from anger, hatred, and violence. And no individual is free from anger, hatred, and violence. Religion and spirituality are best perceived as the evolution of higher and higher levels of transformation of those negative emotions into positive reverence and love of all forms of life. Our relationship with our Creator is a dynamic one; one that unfolds as we progress to maturity. What does God tell us about the present crisis we are in at this stage of human evolution? Receiving the prestigious French Cultural Award in Paris on November 11, 2001, the famous novelist and social activist Arundhati Roy said, " I am against the war, not because I am intrinsically anti-American or pro-Taliban. I am fundamentally opposed to violence. I do not believe war can eradicate terrorism…In India, it is Hindu fundamentalism, in Pakistan it is the Islamic fundamentalism." Marching against the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Amber Amudson, a 28 year-old mother of two and the widow of one of those who died on September 11 attack on the Pentagon said, "I am hurt that the U.S. is moving forward in such a violent manner. I believe you have a responsibility to listen to me and please hear my pain. I do not want anyone to use my husbands death to perpetuate violence." (Chicago Tribune, November 28, 2001). Soon after the destruction of the World Trade Center the Dalai Lama sent $30,000 for its victims, but asked the US not to bomb Afghanistan. Recently he sent $50,000 to help the people of Afghanistan. Please remember that it was Afghanistan that destroyed the ancient and tallest (175 feet) statue of Buddha in the world. How did the Dalai Lama handle his own anger towards the Chinese communists who drove him out of his country, killed thousands of his people and systematically destroyed the Tibetan Buddhist culture? The Dalai Lama used a form of meditation in which he saw the Chinese communists as people who needed spiritual help to overcome the evil in them. So he would visualize them as a dark ominous cloud, inhale that cloud himself, and breathe out light and love. He meditated this way until he could think of the Chinese without the toxic hatred in his heart. This did not mean he condoned the Chinese for their cruel deeds; this did not mean he forgot what they did to his people but he could see them with forgiveness and love. Retaliating against bin Laden and the Taliban in kind is a natural gut-reaction. Self-defense is our birthright. We are wired that way at birth. This is the spirituality of the "eye for an eye" principle. Only one problem: it leads to the whole world becoming blind. Jesus advised his disciples to show the other cheek when others smite you, and give your second robe when they snatch the first one from you. In short, learn to rise above your animal instinct to fight back. Spiritual responses of that kind do not make sense to the practical world because spiritual principles follow a different logic. Spiritual logic might make sense to a spiritual being in individual situations. But does this logic work on a national or international level? Recent history has shown that it might work very well. Only, you need a lot of moral courage. Mahatma Gandhi used this force to win freedom for India from the mighty British Empire. During the height of his nonviolent struggle, when everyone was sure that the colonial forces were at a breaking point, some miscreants among his followers attacked a police station and killed a few policemen. Gandhiji suspended his freedom fight right away. He did not want to win India's freedom the violent way. A violent society does not deserve to be free, he said. Finally when India became free Gandhi asked Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of British India to be India's first Governor General. Here he was requesting the defeated "enemy" to be the head of the state of the new nation, the India that Mountbatten's king had oppressed for centuries. Winston Churchill who had once described Gandhi with derision as the "half-naked fakir" could hardly believe his ears. Gandhi did what Jesus would have done. The cycle of hatred stopped there. India and Britain have continued to maintain the best of relationship all these years. (Sadly, when Gandhi was gone the ordinary men returned to the ways of the pragmatic world). Nonviolence was a moral choice Gandhiji had made in his struggle for the freedom of India. He opposed Subhash Chandra Bose, a colleague and a top leader of the Indian National Congress who advocated armed rebellion against the British. Finally Bose left the Congress, organized the Indian National Army (INA), and joined Japan to fight against Britain during the World War II. INA became a force to reckon with during the War. Gandhiji on the other hand advised Indians to co-operate with Britain during the war although Britain was India's opponent in the freedom struggle. He thought that Hitler was a worse evil than Britain. Fighting evil, and fighting evil with Truth, was a conscious choice he had made in securing freedom and human dignity for India. Martin Luther King, Jr. applied Gandhi's spiritual logic to win civil rights for the Afro-Americans with great success. So let us stop and think before we ridicule a nonviolent, positive Christian approach. We fight back when we feel threatened, when we do not have the moral conviction that love and righteousness will finally prevail. At a time of crisis people come up with many solutions, and many of those solutions can be irrational knee-jerk reactions. A newspaper columnist recently questioned the wisdom of many of the new laws our government has been trying to implement. We already have enough laws, she says. What we lack is implementing them effectively. Curtailing our cherished freedom does not necessarily increase our security. What is a Christian solution to the present crisis? "What would Jesus say if He were to talk to us today? All-out war, limited war, or a non-violent positive program? History shows us that one war leads to another. "War solves no problems", I heard a wise old man say recently. Are there some creative solutions that will prevent the recycling of hatred? There are a few proactive steps we could take even on an individual level. Make an active effort to get to know your neighbors. It is ignorance of the other that makes us feel that others are hostile or evil. As that child said, "tell them our names." It is not enough that we get to know the "other", we have to get to know them on equal terms and with respect for each other. When we open our arms with acceptance and love everyone will become our friend, at least most people will. Pray with our Christian brethren and pray for our perceived enemies. Let us learn about other religions with respect for the followers of those religions. Many of us in America live with the attitude that no other country and its people are important. We have to open our horizons and learn about other peoples as equally worthy human beings as we are. People of other nations and religions are God's children too. We have no monopoly on spiritual wisdom. Quit that "you poor, dumb, ignorant" attitude towards the rest of the world. And let people of other nations know us as human beings with similar feelings, aspirations, and struggles as they have. Develop a non-exploitative relationship with other people and nations. Using people and nations "to get a buck out of them" will always come back to haunt us in future even though we might make some immediate gains from the deal. That is the moral law of the universe. Give. And you will receive. But don't give with the intention of getting it back with interest. People have a tendency to gather everything for themselves and fatten their ego. But morality and religion start when we direct the flow towards others. This is true for the individual as well as for nations. During the freedom struggle for Kenya, its leader Jomo Kenyatta said, "When the White man came he had the Bible and we had our land. Now we have the Bible and he has our land." Don't sneak in a Bible and hope to make them Christians "like us." It is not the lack of Bibles that hasn't made us true Christians. Our best missionary work will be our lives as a good Christians. Our egos have to die on the cross before God's Ego can enter us. September 11 might become a dividing point of America's modern history and that of this nation, a nation of immigrants. We hope our response will be such that it will make this great nation even greater. May God bless this great nation of ours. We shall close this discussion by reading parts of a prayer, "A Litany of Peace", prepared by H. G. Paulos Mar Gregorios for a Peace Conference. Lord and Creator of humanity, have mercy on this race of ours. In your image it was created, to live in peace and joy, reflecting your glory. Look at us now! Swords and spears we have learned to make, to maim and kill, to oppress and to exploit. Now guns and rockets; bombs and tanks! We lust and covet, we fight and destroy, for our lusts and desires have overpowered us. Our greed has become insatiable. Teach us to seek justice and pursue peace. Teach us to labor in love without greed, in order to serve in dignity and serve the needs of our fellow human beings. Kindle in us the quest for peace with justice, Lord! These terrorism, wars and battles between us first start precisely in the desires fighting inside our own selves. We want something we haven't got, so we are prepared to kill. We have an ambition that we cannot satisfy, so we fight to get our way by force. Why do we not have what we want? Because we don't pray for it; when we pray and don't get it is because we have not prayed properly, we have prayed for something in order to indulge our own desires. We are constantly destroying our ecology and we are affected with all kinds of new diseases. Teach us to join pace with the rhythm of the ecosystem of the earth and the universe which are created for us Come Holy Spirit, come.
Come as the fire and burn Come as the wind and cleanse Come as the rain and soothe Come as the light and reveal Convict, convert, comfort Consecrate us to do your will. Lord! Teach us both to know your love and be unafraid to love. Amen. |